BIO | Asimina Proedrou | Writer – Director

 

Asimina was born in 1982, in Athens, Greece. She studied music (piano degree in 2001), International Economics (BA in 2005 and MSc in 2007) and Film Directing (BA in 2013 and MA in 2018), while working for the finance department of a large international corporation for fourteen years. 

 

She has produced, written and directed two multi-awarded short films (FACETS OF LONELINESS, 2012; RED HULK, 2013). Her short film, RED HULK (2013), won the Best Short Film Awards at the two major film festivals in Greece (Drama IFF and Athens IFF). It was officially selected for more than seventy international film festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand (International Competition 2014), and won seven international awards. 

 

Her debut feature film, BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS (2022), which she wrote and directed, was the official Greek entry for the 96th Academy Awards (International Oscar), and was among the 40 Best European films chosen for the European Film Awards (Feature Film Selection 2023). The film won 10 Iris awards at the Hellenic (Greek) Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenwriter, while it was nominated for 17; a record-breaking number of nominations in the history of the Institution.

 

BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS was officially selected for the Palm Springs International Film Festival (2023) (‘Awards Buzz’ competitive section and MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award nomination). It was also selected for the EFP Program, 'Europe! Voices of Women in Film' at the Sydney International Film Festival, as well as for several other major International Film Festivals. The film won, among others, six awards at the 63^rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival, including Fipresci Award, and the Best Debut Feature Award at the 53rd International Film Festival of India (Goa). 

 

BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS was critically acclaimed both locally and Internationally (Screen Daily, The Film Verdict, Fipresci, Variety, Screen Daily New Talents Focus), and was described as “an intriguing and deft debut […] of an intense psychological study of murky morality” (Screen Daily) and “a contemporary Greek tragedy” in which Proedrou juggles “multi-character complexity and non-linear narratives with impressive dexterity” (The Film Verdict). 

 

It was a big success in Greece, with a major cinema release for more than 30 consecutive weeks; it was among the 5 films nominated for the 2023 Casting Semiramis Award by the International Casting Directors Association (ICDA), and among the 10 European Films shortlisted for the Goya Spanish Film Academy Awards.

 

Asimina is currently developing two new feature project scripts and the pilot of a TV series. Her new feature project film HYSTÉRA was selected for the Sarajevo CineLink Industry Days, where it won the Development Award from Montenegro. 

 

Asimina is an alumna of Sarajevo Talents 2015 and Berlinale Talents 2015, and a member of the Hellenic Film Academy and the European Film Academy.